The Daily Show: August 12, 2008 - VIDEOS

"Anti-Olympic Update": Instead of using sports as a metaphor for war, Russia has been juggling the Olympics and attacks on neighbor Georgia. I can never get enough of The Daily Show's graphics department. Just check out that hardcore anti-Olympic intro with the rings of doom. Jon Stewart got a lot of applause for that "Oh, war... It's just God's way of teaching Americans geography." Does it count as stealing if the joke is super, super old and reasonably well-known already?

With coverage of this battle, a surprising number of references have been made to the 3 a.m. phone call, because everything has to tie back to John McCain or Barack Obama or it's not worth talking about. Obviously. That whole "... in Europe" game was beautifully crafted. And sad. And true.

Senior War Correspondent John Oliver reported live from Tblisi, Georgia, having a bit too much fun with the "tb-" combination. John can really do no wrong, even in something as brief as this.

"Chasing the Dragon": Senior Olympics Correspondent Rob Riggle checked in again with another Beijing Olympics report. I wonder if they had warned the Tai Chi exercisers that he was going to disturb them. They must have known it was coming, seeing a camera and a big American approaching. This was another great piece from Rob. The best parts were when he got his ass handed to him by a little Chinese boy in ping-pong and then returning the favor in basketball. I also liked how Rob wasn't really using chopsticks properly, but had stabbed that chicken wing with both sticks. At least he was kind of holding it properly.

The night's guest was Senator Mel Martinez of Florida. Ooh, Florida. Of course, this interview was not without a few election jokes here and there, which Senator Martinez had no trouble rolling with, but the majority of it was focused on his book, A Sense of Belonging: From Castro's Cuba to the U.S. Senate, One Man's Pursuit of the American Dream, and his work as Florida's Senator. All in all, a fairly straightforward interview, with some interesting background on his childhood and views on off-shore drilling around Florida.

Moment of Zen: McCain whacks on Obama. You'll just have to take Carl Cameron's word for it.

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I want an answer to the question about stealing a joke if it's well-known. Rick Shenkman used that quote in a Daily Show interview back in June, but he actually attributed it to Ambrose Bierce. Shame on you, Jon.